Trinseo raises November prices for PS, ABS and SAN produced in EMEA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe, have announced a price increase for all polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer (SAN), manufactured in the EMEA, as per the company's press release.

Effective November 1, 2021, or as existing contract terms allow, a surcharge of EUR200/mt will apply to the contract and spot prices for all Trinseo STYRON PS, MAGNUM ABS resins and TYRIL SAN resins.

According to the company's statement, these surcharges are in response to unprecedented and escalating pressure from energy prices and apply to all current agreements and contracts for deliveries as of November 1, 2021 and are subject to further potential adjustments linked to fluctuating energy prices.

As MRC reported earlier, earlier this month, Trinseo announced a price increase for all PS, ABS and SAN in Europe. Effective October 1, 2021, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below rose, as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR55 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR55 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR60 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR45 per metric ton.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Russia, October prices of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's GPPS were in the range of Rb152,750-163,700/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and HIPS prices were at Rb156,750-167,700/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. Penoplex contracted its GPPS quantities at Rb169,000-171,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in October, whereas last week's prices of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's GPPS were heard at Rb152,500-156,500/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD3.0 billion in net sales in 2020, with 17 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,600 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tosoh Corporation, a major Japanese petrochemical producer, has announced it will permanently stop producing and selling toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and TDI-related products from its Nanyo complex in Japan, effective April 2023, according to Apic-online.

Despite the continuous implementation of measures to improve profitability, the environment surrounding this business has become increasingly severe in recent years, and there are no prospects for improvement, the company stated.

Tosoh currently produce 25,000 t/y of TDI at the site.

As MRC reported earlier, Tosoh resumed normal production at its caustic soda plant in Nanyo City (Nanyo, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) with the capacity of 1.188 million tons of caustic soda and 1.06 million tons of chlorine per year on June 24, 2021. The company experienced some technical issues when restarting after a scheduled repair. Since June 12, the caustic and chlorine production capacity utilisation was reduced by about 30%.

Founded in 1935, Japan's Tosoh Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, is an international chemicals and specialty materials company. The main activity of the company is the production of chlor-alkali and petrochemical products, which include ethylene, propylene, polypropylene, polyethylene and synthetic rubbers. The Tosoh Group globally includes over 130 companies with manufacturing facilities and offices in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, UK, Greece, Switzerland and the USA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) totalled slightly over 1.475 mln tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 8% year on year. At the same time, only one producer increased its output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

September HDPE production in Russia dropped to 146,400 tonnes, whereas this figure was 158,500 tonnes a month earlier; Gazprom neftekhim Salavat and Kazanorgsintez reduced their capacity utilisation due to the turnarounds. Thus, overall HDPE output reached 1,475,000 tonnes in January-September 2021, compared to 1,366,000 tonnes a year earlier. Only ZapSibNeftekhim's output increased, two more producers reduced their production.

The structure of PE output by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

September production of HDPE at ZapSibNeftekhim reached 98,900 tonnes against 103,200 tonnes a month earlier. In general, total output of HDPE at the Tobolsk plant approached the level of 885,900 tonnes in January-September, up 36% year on year.

Kazanorgsintez's total HDPE production fell to 19,400 tonnes last month from 29,500 tonnes in August, the decrease in production was due to the shutdown for scheduled maintenance in mid-September. Thus, overall production of this PE grade totalled 283,600 tonnes over the stated period, down by 26% year on year.

Stavrolen's September HDPE production was 24,900 tonnes versus 25,800 tonnes a month earlier. The plant's overall HDPE output exceeded 238,200 tonnes in January-September 2021, which virtually corresponded to the last year's figure.

Last month, the total volume of HDPE production at Gazprom neftekhim Salavat amounted to slightly less than 3,200 tonnes, in August there was no production due to the maintenance works. Thus, overall production of this PE grade totalled 66,800 tonnes at the plant over the stated period, down by 28% year on year.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. has announced that they have signed an Agreement of Intent with Rosneft for the implementation of a project related to the “Construction of the VGO Hydrocracking Complex” at the Ryazan Refining Company’s (RORC) production site, approximately 200 km southeast of Moscow, as per Maire Tecnimont's press release.

The agreement was signed on the occasion of the ХIV Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona, in Italy.

Vacuum Gas Oil (VGO) is produced by a vacuum distillation unit in a refinery plant. Rosneft’s subsidiary RORC is one of the largest Russian refineries by volume of refining and production output.

The project’s scope of work entails a full range of works related to the design, supply of equipment and materials, construction, start-up and commissioning, and project finance services.

The VGO hydrocracking complex will enable RORC to increase refining margins by converting heavy petroleum products into Class 5 light commercial petroleum products (gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel). The complex includes hydrocracking units, hydrogen production units, elemental sulphur production units, and off-site facilities. All equipment has high environmental performance characteristics. The project uses modern, highly efficient technology and equipment with an automated control system to reduce the carbon footprint of the plant.

Rosneft is implementing an unprecedented program to upgrade its refineries, with more than Rb900 B (USD13 B approximately) already invested to significantly increase the production of Class 5 gasoline, diesel fuel and fully meet the needs of the domestic market.

Pierroberto Folgiero, Maire Tecnimont Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are really honored to put for the first time at Rosneft’s service our technological know-how as well as our engineering and construction capabilities for this strategic initiative to unlock greater value through the transformation of natural resources, while ensuring best environmentally performing standards. This achievement with a prestigious client such as Rosneft let us further consolidate our very strong track record in the Russian Federation, a market currently showing really significant investment trends in downstream”.

As MRC reported earlier, the Indian company Nayara Energy, 49.13% of which is owned by Russia's largest state oil company - Rosneft, has recently launched a USD750 million petrochemical development program. Nayara Energy has the second largest refinery in India with a capacity of 20 million tons per year. The Indian company has already launched a refinery development program: within the first stage, it is planned to build units for the production of polypropylene (PP) with a capacity of up to 450,000 tonnes per year.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,638,370 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 989,570 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas shipments of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KP Engineering, LP (KPE), a leader in the design and execution of customized EPC solutions for the refining, syngas, hydrogen, and renewable fuels industries, has entered into a mutual collaboration agreement with OMNI Conversion Technologies Inc. (OMNI), said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

OMNI is a Canadian company focused on producing clean green energy by converting energetic waste into OmniSyngasTM and OmniRockTM, with full diversion from landfill. The collaboration will enable the companies to supply equipment and technology to produce hydrogen from waste with a negative carbon footprint at less than half the cost of electrolysis.

A result of the long-standing mutually beneficial working relationship between KPE and OMNI, the new agreement formalizes the collaboration and provides a one-stop experience for potential customers. KPE and OMNI will co-market OMNI's patented technology. They will exclusively collaborate with each other to provide an integrated modular solution for converting a wide variety of minimally prepared wastes to hydrogen, while capturing CO2 for subsequent use or sequestration. Biomass-fed projects will fall outside of the scope of the agreement.

William E. Preston, president and chief operating officer, KP Engineering, said, “The partnership between KPE as an industry-leading EPC with a ground-breaking technology provider such as OMNI embodies the type of collaboration that will bring green hydrogen to fruition. This agreement solidifies an already highly efficient working relationship between KPE and OMNI, and will bring to market a cost-effective, zero- and even negative-carbon emission option for producing green hydrogen."

Marc Bacon, president and chief operating officer, OMNI, said “This agreement formalizes the close relationship OMNI enjoys with KPE. It provides seamless integration of OMNI’s GPRSTM units, developed over more than a decade at a cost of over $400 MM, with downstream unit operations by KPE to convert the syngas to hydrogen. We are thrilled to work with KPE in the new circular economy to reduce methane emissions from municipal solid waste (MSW) and other wastes by providing a one-stop, low-cost, and low-risk solution."

As MRC informed earlier, KP Engineering, an industry leader in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) solutions, has been awarded a fixed-price EPC contract by Praxair, Inc. to expand carbon monoxide production at its Geismar, Louisiana plant.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,396,960 tonnes in January-July 2021, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 841,990 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 29% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC